“But a bookstore can’t survive on that support alone,” she said. “It isn’t enough to only surround ourselves with people who already love books. If we don’t get people who have stopped reading, or haven’t been interested in reading before, to realize how fun it is, then things will end up tapering off. Which is why I want to widen our scope, so that books become something closer to people.”
That was why she’d said the day earlier that she wanted to put some things that couldn’t be expressed as anything but books on her shelf. Emiko felt inspired, as if she’d felt the other woman’s passion…
“Hey, Grandma, I just thought of this, but if you’re that interested, why don’t you rent a shelf for yourself?” Mizuki suggested, nudging her grandmother’s arm with her elbow.
Sumika Bookstore’s opening was five days away. Emiko had been reading through all of the nostalgic books she had on the shelf in her room so she could have the books she’d put on her shelf ready to go. She’d chosen a number of books, but she felt like they weren’t enough, so she went to the big bookstore near Okayama Station to find some things to stock from the new books there.
She had never chosen books based purely on what she wanted to sell. And it wasn’t like she could simply put books out there. If they didn’t catch anyone’s eye, then it was as if they weren’t out at all. She walked through the store, observing how they displayed their books.
Normally, she would be delighted with herself if she found a good book, as if it was her achievement, but she realized it was really because the bookstore had worked hard to get the book into the hands of someone who needed it. In the past few days, all sorts of things she’d assumed were obvious truths were being overwritten.
Emiko had named her shelf “Ke no Hi,” or “The Everyday.” It was a term to contrast “hare no hi,” which was used to describe days that were special and once-in-a-lifetime.
How would she fill up that empty little shelf? At first, she had just planned to fill it with books she liked, but she had decided to stock books connected to the reason she became a shelf owner in the first place. Books that made you notice your everyday life and gave it color. She wanted people to experience the same sort of little coincidental links that she’d experienced herself.
Other than just books, Emiko bought herself some new clothes for the first time in a while. When she did nothing but walk back and forth between home and the supermarket, she never felt like enjoying fashion. But when she thought about the new encounters that would be in her future, she felt like she couldn’t stay subdued like a seventy-year-old. Winter was just around the corner, and she wanted to wear colorful clothing.
After making a short stop home to drop off her things, she headed straight to Sumika Bookstore. As she opened the glass door, Junka greeted her cheerfully. The locations of the books inside changed every day. Looking around, she could see the traces of trial and error on the shelves.
“I’ve brought books. Would it be all right if I put them on my shelf?” Emiko asked.
“Go ahead!” Junka replied.
Emiko set the books she’d just bought on her shelf. As she put her recommendation on the bookstand that she’d borrowed from Junka, it felt like she’d made it look somewhat put together. But when she compared her shelf to the display another shelf owner had made with high and low points, she also felt as if she still had far to go. She decided she’d bring in a cloth to put on her shelf tomorrow. She’d also gotten a suggestion to display her shelf’s concept, so she made up her mind to write it out on a postcard or something and bring it back with her.
“You’ve done a great job choosing books, and the shelf itself looks like it’s coming along too,” Junka said, checking the books Emiko had put on her unfinished shelf.
“Really, I want to have someone read the book that Mizuki gave me. But there’s only one copy of that, so I can’t go selling it.”
Even so, she wanted to talk about it with someone else who’d also read the book.
Junko cocked her head and considered this. “Maybe we could get all the shelf owners together and do a public reading. We’d probably need permission to do it, though. Would you like me to get in contact with them? It would be a great opportunity to let them know your impressions of it.”
“In contact? With the writer?”
“Um, maybe it’d be better to just ask Frère’s owner,” Junka said thoughtfully. “I’m sure that if we just tried to contact the author herself, she wouldn’t know what to do with it. And I figured I’d be reaching out to the owner with more questions at some point anyway.”
“Would it be all right?”
“I would think he’d be happy.” Junka added that if she did contact him, then she could send Sayaka a letter through him.
While Emiko didn’t have the sort of pretty voice that people would want to listen to, a public reading would let other people know about Sayaka’s writing, even though there was only one copy.
“I tried adapting the medama curry that was in the book at home, and it was delicious, so I’d like to tell her about that as well.”
“Hey, Ishiie-san. How about we try making a little booklet, with your impressions of the book and a little illustrated recipe? We can make a little folded book out of a single piece of paper.”